Activists say 4 organisers of flotilla that sought to interrupt Gaza blockade have been held in Tunisia since March.
Revealed On 2 Sep 2026
A Brazilian activist has demanded the discharge of 4 Tunisian colleagues who had been a part of the International Sumud Flotilla that tried to interrupt the Israeli blockade on Gaza to ship humanitarian assist final 12 months.
Activists from a number of international locations all over the world boarded dozens of boats, launching the flotilla in August 2025, to hold life-saving provides to Gaza. They had been subsequently intercepted by Israel, with these on board detained.
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Israeli authorities launched Nabil Channoufi, Ghassan Henchiri, Ghassan Boughdiri, and Wael Naouar from jail and so they returned to Tunisia in October. Fellow activists mentioned Tunisian “counterterrorism” police rearrested the 4 in February, after they introduced a brand new flotilla mission to hold assist to Gaza.
“It’s been so lengthy, my expensive associates,” mentioned Brazilian activist Thiago Avila, in a video message posted on social media on Tuesday.
“I’m writing to you this letter after 170 days because you’ve been arrested whereas mobilising solidarity with Palestine by way of our peaceable mission of the International Sumud Flotilla to interrupt the unlawful siege of Gaza,” he mentioned.
In March, the United Kingdom-based information web site the Morning Star reported that the activists had been detained by the Tunisian Nationwide Guard monetary crimes unit for alleged cash laundering, fraud and misuse of funds collected by way of flotilla marketing campaign donations.
They’ve been held in Tunis’s Mornaguia Jail for greater than 5 months, based on relations and fellow activists. Tunisia’s authorities has not publicly commented on the state of affairs.
“Nobody ought to be detained and separated from their households for performing in solidarity with a individuals sufferer of a genocide,” Avila mentioned.
“Nobody, particularly in Tunisia, the place the individuals are related with Palestine with all their hearts and [where they] supported our mission even within the hardest circumstances.”
Avila mentioned {that a} starvation strike by Wael Naouar has stretched on for a minimum of seven days. The activist added he and Naouar had taken an identical motion whereas held in Israeli detention final 12 months.
“You’ve been fainting, throwing up blood, and with a essential medical situation,” he mentioned.
Israel imposed an air, land and sea blockade on Gaza to stop meals, water, drugs and different provides from getting into the enclave since 2007, when Hamas took management of Gaza. That blockade was intensified in October 2023 amid Israel’s genocidal battle that adopted Hamas-led assaults on southern Israel.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition is a global community of organisations that has launched a number of missions to Gaza since 2010, together with the Sumud Flotilla, to ship humanitarian assist.
Past final 12 months’s Sumud mission, organisers additionally launched a flotilla this 12 months that was intercepted by Israeli forces in April.
Activists have accused Tunisia’s authorities of in search of to cease the flotillas, which have repeatedly used the Sidi Bou Stated port within the nation’s north to organise.
Past the arrests, activists have accused the federal government of banning gatherings and different occasions associated to the flotillas.
